Authorities have attributed them to the esoteric schools of philosophy of ancient Egypt or India. They were used by the Gypsies around the shores of the Mediterranean for fortune-telling, and they were rediscovered by the Renaissance schools, which were at that time also delving into the mysteries of Alchemy and the Kabalah. There was a revival interest in the Tarot about the middle of the 19th century (again), and this has continued ever since.
The Major Arcana are said to be derived from the pages of the oldest book in the world (Book of Thoth?), originated by Hermes Trismegistus, councilor of Osiris, King of Egypt, at a period when hieroglyph writing, magic, astrology, and other mystic sciences flourished.
Some scholars maintain that they were invented by the Chinese; others that they were brought from India by the Gypsies.
They are also frequently related to the Kabalistic lore of the Hebrew; and a correspondence is often pointed out between the cards of the Major Arcana and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The earliest known existed Tarot deck has 271 cards from fifteen fragmented decks painted in the 1450s for the Visconti-Sforza family, the rulers of Milan. There're others hand-painted in 15th century, including Venice and Ferrara, but the ones from Milan appear to be the oldest (!?)
It is almost certain that the history of the cards goes back even further into the shrouded mist of antiquity.
A profound study of the Tarot does reveal much of the ancient Hebrew wisdom of the Kabbalah; many of the symbols are indeed linked ith Egyptian mythology; and the Gypsies are widely considered to have possessed an uncanny gift for reading the past, the present and the future by the means of the Tarot pack.
